I'm mostly finished with this one. Been working on it for a while. I still have the plaque to finish, but that can easily go on any time. The first coat of paint is on it, just waiting for it to dry before continuing.
The engine has a lot of bare metal, so required a fair amount of Alclad. Since I wanted the steel to really shine, I used Alclad 2 chrome. For the brass parts (It looks like the 'bearings' which comprised ALL of the main caps and rod ends) were painted with Alclad 2 Polished Brass. Even though both paints went over gloss black Tamiya spray, the brass never did end up 'polished' looking, quite unlike the chrome paint.
The boiler and valve chests were painted with rubber black flat. I had originally thought about weathering the thing after the base coats went on, but decided to leave it as-is, instead of potentially messing up the metallic finishes.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. It did have some flash, and sink marks that had to be dealt with, but nothing too bad. All of the main caps and rod ends need to be fitted before painting, as the fit on some required some work, which then required a second application of the brass Alclad on some parts (the brass really doesn't stick very well).
And, on the plus side, it turns!! I'm VERY happy with that! This kit used to be motorized, and the plastic gears and drive bits are included in the kit. It just doesn't have any assembly instructions, or the metal parts for this portion of the kit.
Overhead view:
Somewhat close up:
I figured that for some of the small-diameter piping they probably would have used copper (I took some artistic license here), so the part hanging off the boiler has the piping painted copper, with the application of a metallic weathering product that my wife got me from one of her craft suppliers. It has copper, iron, brass and bronze 'reactive' paints. You paint your subject with the paint, then spray the reactant on it, which creates the oxidation. The piping has the green copper patina you'd expect a copper part in a marine environment to have. It was just some playing around I did, and I like the effect.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas